1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to animated toys for children, and more particularly, to an animated toy having an extendable and retractable appendage, such as a tongue, that automatically coils and retracts from an extended position when manually actuated.
2. Description of the Background Art
Toys depicting animated characters are well known and designed in a variety of ways for the amusement of children. Oftentimes, these toys incorporate mechanical devices to simulate animals and animal behavior. Generally, the educational purpose of imitating animal behavior in toys is to instill children with imagination, familiarity and comfort in interacting with animals. For instance, one of the most intriguing events that has been documented in nature is a creature, such as a frog, that catches insects with a whip of its tongue.
Various attempts to animate or simulate such activity are known in the background art. For instance, a toy creature having a tongue for capturing prey is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,433, issued to McKay, Oct. 18, 1988. The disclosed toy creature defines a mouth having a hinged upper jaw and a tongue which are simultaneously manipulated by a push-pull member to cause the jaw to move and the tongue to curl. The tongue is formed from a plurality of links pivotally joined together and is connected to the push-pull member which is manually gripped and moved by the user of the toy to extend and retract the tongue. An animated Figure holder, disclosed by Barbato, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,198, teaches a holder for animated Figures in the form of a simulated rib cage from a prehistoric beast. A creature with a snap action jaw is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,854, issued to Amici, Dec. 31, 1985, and it comprises a simulated creature having snapping jaws that are pivotally mounted to a body assembly and actuated by a lever arm, a depressible button and a cam portion arrangement. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,327, issued Sep. 4, 1984 to Ulrich, an amusement game device includes a dragon like Figure having a body portion, an elongated flexible neck portion, and a head portion with a hook like tongue which picks up rings by moving a plunger assembly for placement into an open cup. Another game is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,610, issued Mar. 24, 1981 to Ptaszek, and comprises a snapping animal head having a retractable game board in the form of an elongated moving strip that is mechanically self-retracted by a manual winding motor into the Figure of the animal's head. Petrusek, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,054, issued Jun. 12, 1973, discloses an animal action toy which comprises an animal having a cord attached to the roof of the animal's mouth at one end and a bug tethered at the other end, whereby, the bug is tossed by hand away from the animal's head and caught with the animal's mouth by compressing the head.
The foregoing inventions disclose a number of animated toys that require complicated linkages and mechanisms to move requisite body parts. However, although various animated toys are disclosed none of them show a toy comprising a creature, such as a frog, dinosaur, or dog having a simulated tongue that is retractable automatically by slight movement, that facilitates the attachment of objects to the tongue and that recoils into a simulated mouth.